Statement by the Pankow District Advisory Council for Participation and Integration on the planned MUF at Kavalierstraße/Grüner Kiez

The Pankow Integration Advisory Council is committed to respectful, solidarity-based and ecologically responsible coexistence in the district. We stand for community instead of opposition, for dialogue instead of division.

We are concerned to see that refugees are increasingly being exploited in the public debate about the planned construction of modular accommodation for refugees (MUF) on Kavalierstraße. Refugees must not serve as an argument or projection surface for political or urban planning conflicts. They are part of our society — people who seek protection and want to live here with dignity.

As an advisory board, which includes people with their own migration and refugee experience, we emphasize: Integration does not succeed through confrontation, but through encounter, participation and mutual respect — including and especially in urban planning.

We welcome and support the Climate B Plan developed by the Citizens' Initiative Grüner Kiez Pankow and the district as a sustainable compromise. This provides for moderate densification with the preservation of significant green spaces, playrooms and biotopes, which would only require around 14 trees to give way. In this way, affordable housing can be created without destroying the ecological and social balance of the district. Pankow needs both: nature and climate protection that preserves the quality of life, social cohesion that strengthens integration.

At the same time, we would like to point out that Pankow is already one of the districts in which a particularly large number of refugees live, while at the same time numerous social projects and integration offers are affected by cuts. Solidarity urban development therefore also means that other districts assume greater responsibility and provide accommodation for refugees — so that integration can be successful everywhere and is not spread over just a few shoulders. We call on all stakeholders involved — Senate, Gesobau, districts and civil society — to act in the spirit of fair cooperation. The well-being of people and the protection of our environment must not be pitted against each other, but must be shaped together.

Integrationsbeirat Pankow/Berlin, 21.10.2025